Video & DVD

the brutal truth (1999, Alliance Atlantis), dir. Cameron Thor w/ Leslie Horan, Justin Lazard. In this straight-to-video drama, nine high school friends reunite in a remote cabin where one of them commits suicide. Think The Big Chill meets The Breakfast Club, with annoying 20-somethings dealing with death and an unnecessarily violent secret that gives the film a nasty energy. NN

Big-screen rating: N/A

a matter of taste (1999, Remstar), dir. Bernard Rapp w/ Jean-Pierre Lorit, Bernard Giraudeau. A Howard Hughes-type industrialist (Giraudeau) hires a younger man (Lorit) who looks very much like him to become his food-taster. This well-crafted psychological drama deals with the symbiotic relationship between the all-powerful Giraudeau and the dependent Lorit, who completely loses his identity in the older man's grasp. NNN

Big-screen rating: N/A

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(2000, Odeon), dir. Stephen Soderbergh w/ Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro. Soderbergh¹s opus about America¹s war on drugs has been over- praised by critics and the Academy ­ he picked up this year¹s best-directing Oscar. Yes, it¹s a grand work, a sprawling three-hour look at the suppliers, traffickers and lawmakers whose lives are controlled by the white powder, but Soderbergh allows a preachy tone to creep in when he¹s dealing with politico Douglas and his daughter¹s (Julia Stiles) addiction and disappearance. The star in this powerful ensemble drama is Oscar-winner Del Toro, who gives a seamless performance as a Mexican cop drifting into corruption for what he believes is the greater good. NNN

close encounters of the third kind (1977, Columbia Tri-Star), dir. Steven Spielberg w/ Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr. Spielberg was just starting his transition to child's-eye adventure with this movie. Dreyfuss returns from Jaws to play an excitable manchild eager to contact space aliens. Spielberg's mastery of wonder and suspense are already in full flight here. And Garr gives a career-best performance. Columbia Tri-Star's DVD is an amorphic wide-screen transfer of Spielberg's favourite cut of the film, the Collector's Edition, minus the mothership footage added years ago for the studio's Special Edition.

DVD Extras: The two-disc set features Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks, The Making Of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind documentary, Watch The Skies featurette, deleted scenes, two trailers and cast and crew bios. 137 minutes. NNNNN CAMERON BAILEY